The Minister for Alcohol Policy Dave Tollner outlines measures being considered to tackle the Territory's alcohol problem.

Transcript

ALYSSA BETTS, PRESENTER: The Australian Hotels Association says licensees already have an accord with Darwin police, which involves commitment to safety and zero tolerance for anti-social behaviour and violence. It says they are looking at ways to strengthen the accord but it also calls on individuals to take responsibility for their actions. Earlier I was joined in the studio by the Minister for Alcohol Policy Dave Tollner.

Dave Tollner, welcome to the program.

DAVE TOLLNER, MINISTER FOR ALCOHOL POLICY: Great to be with you.

ALYSSA BETTS: Your department is reviewing regulations and apparently operating hours for licensed premises but has refused point blank to actually talk about it at all, so can you talk about it - what's the study or review about?

DAVE TOLLNER: Well Alyssa, there's a couple of reviews going on. One is we're looking at licensing arrangements right across the Northern Territory but in the last little while we've started reviewing the Mitchell Street liquor accord. We've been working very closely with the Australian Hotels Association, with police and obviously licensees along that strip are very keen to make sure that community safety is paramount when people are going out for a good time and very keen to see that, you know, alcohol related violence is kept to a minimum and if possible stamped out.

ALYSSA BETTS: So would mandatory restrictions be something that's considered, such as for example earlier lockout times or earlier closing times?

DAVE TOLLNER: Yeah look, those things haven't been decided upon yet but they're all being discussed and I have to say it is very important that we have the involvement of the local licensees in this. There is a liquor accord along Mitchell Street already, it's a little bit flimsy at the moment in as much that not all licensees are signed up to that. We want to strengthen that, we want to give it some teeth.

ALYSSA BETTS: Wouldn't that be the nature of voluntary, the weakness of voluntary sort of membership of such an accord? Wouldn't mandatory measures fix that problem?

DAVE TOLLNER: Well look we can, we can say that things will be voluntary and if they're not going to voluntary the Government will step in but can I say we've had great interaction with the Australian Hotels Association. Licensees are not giving us any problems at this stage, everybody recognises that we want to run a safe city in Darwin and that alcohol related violence is not good for anyone.

ALYSSA BETTS: Back in May, you announced that alcohol protection orders would be brought in and my understanding of that was that somebody who was charged with an offence that was a minimum 6 month jail could actually be slapped one of these alcohol protection orders so that they couldn't buy any alcohol at all. What has happened to the alcohol protection orders that you announced back in May - when are we going to see them?

DAVE TOLLNER: It's good that you raised this, cabinet discussed this very recently and has agreed to proceed to the legislative stage of this so you know it's my understanding that those, those laws will be in place very shortly. I'd probably imagine they'll be introduced to Parliament around November and discussions will take place and hopefully we'll get action and legislation up fairly quickly on that but we're very keen to see alcohol protection orders put in place. There are other measures that we're currently considering that will also compliment alcohol protection orders in making sure that people who commit offences, crimes, are deterred from drinking if they're picked up by police.

ALYSSA BETTS: What are those other measures you talk of?

DAVE TOLLNER: Oh look at the moment I don't want to go into too much discussion because there's still some investigation but we're looking at GPS tracking bracelets and the like so that people who are on an alcohol protection order will be able to be tracked, their movements will be able to be tracked and we'll know if they're entering licensed premises, going to bottle shops or the like but at the moment discussions are occurring and investigations are being taken into account about the cost of those things, the availability of them, where we might be able to use them but certainly it's a front of mind issue for us.

ALYSSA BETTS: Is there any other examples in any other jurisdictions where people are wearing GPS bracelets that they can be tracked whether they go into a pub?

DAVE TOLLNER: Well absolutely. I mean we're looking at what's occurring in South Australia at the moment, where they're using these bracelets. Now, in most cases they're used for people on home detention and it's quite common around Australia and around the world where these bracelets are used and they're quite a simple device in as much that they allow someone's, you know, whereabouts to be known at any one time and if you were given a home detention order you're expected to be home. If someone leaves home, police are very quickly onto that issue.

ALYSSA BETTS: But are there other systems where they're actually being used to track whether or not someone's entering into a licensed premises?

DAVE TOLLNER: Ah look I'm not aware of that sort of detail - that's really a matter for the Police Minister, the Chief Minister and police to talk to about. I do know that we're looking at these things and that we're seriously considering their use in the Territory in relation to alcohol protection orders, which I think, if everything shapes up the way it sounds, will give police a very powerful tool to make sure that people commit violent offences and criminal offences when they're under the influence of alcohol can be tracked and they're, they can be basically watched to make sure that they're not accessing licensed premises or accessing alcohol.